The Town

Cops and criminals and the people in between who always, always get hurt. This scenario has been executed countless times by countless filmmakers with sometimes incredible, mind-blowing results. I'm looking at you, 'Heat.'

The vast dramatic potential for this set-up also means that it will continue to be explored, time and time and time again.

Enter Ben Affleck, who outside of movies co-starring Matt Damon or written by Kevin Smith, has failed to ever truly impress me as an actor, but who shows surprising chops as a director. His first feature, 'Gone Baby Gone,' had a fierce amount of energy and richness to it, and Affleck's potential behind the camera rocketed past that of his actor-self.

I don't wish to insult, merely to observe here that Affleck's acting history tends to indicate that he just isn't interesting enough to play the roles offered to, say, Sean Connery when he crossed over to senior-citizen-status.

So along comes 'The Town,' a cops-and-criminals movie that borrows elements from movies as good as 'Heat' and as silly as 'Point Break' and 'The Fast and the Furious.' But as the trailer proves: treat any subject matter with enough dignity and it can become awesome.

For that's what this trailer was for me. Awesome.

I took a great amount of delight in the perversely updated look of the bank-robbers from 'Point Break' and the high-energy camera work. Watching Jon Hamm play someone that is not Don Draper is too cool, especially since he looks like a great, tough cop.

The performances look solid across the board as great actors are paired with an actor/director who knows how to nurture them and let them be. Jeremy Renner and Chris Cooper round out the supporting cast and I defy you to name one role from either of them that wasn't stellar.

The music through-out works powerfully with the images and subject matter, and the pacing is right on.

Points are lost due to the mid-trailer text that says: "From the Studio that brought you The Departed" That kind of cross-promotional branding is pathetic to me, and is becoming frustratingly popular these days. Allow me to re-write their copy:

"From the Studio that brought you The Dukes of Hazzard"

"From the Studio that brought you License to Wed"

or, my favorite:

"From the Studio that brought you Catwoman"

It's a dumb ploy. Anyone who takes the time to read the copy knows it's dumb. It's a completely unnecessary drawback to a fairly intense trailer that sells a movie that, though we have seen it before, shows serious promise.

'The Town' had enough that works on me (the genre, the performers, the directing) that I happily grant an "Opening Night" rating.

The picture opens in the US on September 10, 2010.

Until next time.